This invention relates to a method of producing a food flavoring agent and to a product having cocoa-like flavor notes, and more particularly to a roasted yeast food flavoring product which may specifically be used as a cocoa extender, substitute and/or replacer and to methods of manufacture thereof.
Cocoa powder and chocolate are utilized extensively as consumable foodstuffs in a wide variety of applications, including use as a beverage base, and as a flavoring ingredient in formulated drinks, ice cream, cakes and biscuits, icings and confectionery coatings, confectioneries and the like. Both cocoa powder and chocolate are derived from cocoa beans which are grown only in tropical and semi-tropical climates. Most of the world's cocoa beans are grown in West Africa, Brazil, Trinidad, Ecuador, Venezuela and Java. Since the cocoa bean is a natural agricultural product, the world supply of cocoa powder and chocolate is dependent upon varying and often unpredictable weather conditions in those regions. In addition, the major cocoa powder and chocolate consuming areas of the world must import cocoa beans, thereby making cocoa powder and chocolate relatively expensive foodstuffs. For these and other reasons, many previous attempts have been made to produce products which may be substituted for cocoa powder or chocolate, or which may be used to extend cocoa powder or chocolate and thereby reduce reliance upon natural cocoa beans. Such cocoa powder or chocolate substitutes or extenders should ideally approximate the color, flavor, aroma and mouth-feel or texture of cocoa powder or chocolate and exhibit properties making them suitable for use in the wide variety of formulations in which natural cocoa powder or chocolate are used. However, since natural cocoa is a complex material comprising carbohydrate, fats, proteins, mineral matter, theobromine, caffeine, water and fibre, and undergoes extensive processing, substitutes or extenders approximating all of the properties of cocoa powder or chocolate have been difficult to obtain.
Prior cocoa powder and chocolate substitutes and extenders have included processed carob, roasted defatted wheat germ, and other processed cereal products as well as prior attempts to produce a yeast product obtaining the proper flavor characteristics. Attempts to obtain a suitable product from yeast have included U.S. Pat. No. 3,102,816 of Green et al. which discloses a process for producing a beverage flavor from yeast and sugar, for use in association with other flavor factors such as bitterness, astringency, aroma and the like to resemble a natural beverage flavor, by forming a hydrous reaction mixture of a yeast and a reducing saccharide containing at least 10% moisture and preferably two parts water to one part solids, heating the mixture to at least 350.degree. F. in a closed reaction vessel to obtain a headspace pressure of 75 to 225 p.s.i.g. over the normal pressure for saturated steam at the reaction temperature and then rapidly reducing the temperature of the reaction mixture to below 250.degree. F. The foregoing process, however, produces a product which must be used in association with other flavor factors to resemble a natural product and in addition requires the presence of a reducing saccharide in the reaction mixture and a relatively high level of energy input in order to conduct the process. It has been further suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 4,166,135 of Chao et al. that the flavor of a yeast product may be modified by oxygenating a slurry of fresh yeast cells with an oxygen-containing gas for from less than about 1 to about 120 minutes at a temperature of from about 45.degree. to about 150.degree. C. Other early processes utilizing dry yeast alone or in combination with various sugars have been disclosed which involved heating dry yeast or yeast and sugar mixtures at temperatures up to approximately 160.degree. C. where a brown color was imparted to the yeast. There has been no known commercialization of such processes.
This was probably due in part to the difficulties encountered in obtaining a uniform satisfactory product while attempting to eliminate a yeasty taste in the final product while avoiding the charring of the yeast. These processes failed to practice the method of the present invention by failing to recognize that the dried yeast particles must reach temperatures in excess of 175.degree. C. and not more than about 225.degree. C., preferably about 190.degree. C. to about 210.degree. C. for a period of time sufficient to develop the texture, color, flavor and aroma characteristics of natural cocoa powder. The product of the present invention produces a dry roasted yeast product having the desired taste, flavor and aroma characteristics without the undesirable yeasty or burnt characteristics previously encountered. The dry product prepared according to this invention and having a moisture content of less than about 5% by weight may then be successfully employed as a food or beverage flavoring agent by for example being substituted for part or all of the cocoa powder used in foodstuff or beverage formulations, without the addition of other flavor factors normally deemed necessary for other replacers or substitutes presently employed for cocoa powder in applications where a cocoa or chocolate flavor is sought.